


Please have snow and mistletoe

by UsernamesStressMeOut



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Advent Calendar, Cas loves Christmas, Case Fic, Child Death, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Destiel - Freeform, Friends to Lovers, Goofy Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, Missing Persons, Moody Dean Winchester, Mutual Pining, canonverse, festive! Cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:29:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 20,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21632212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UsernamesStressMeOut/pseuds/UsernamesStressMeOut
Summary: The first snow is falling, people are starting to worry about what presents to buy and how to decorate their homes.Then somebody goes missing.Every winter during the last few years people in the area have vanished without any traces.The case immediately catches Sam and Dean´s interest. With the help of Cas, who has really started to get into a festive mood, they start investigating the case in which somehow all hints lead back to Christmas.But even with all this festive craziness around him Sam notices something else.Dean and Cas have been getting closer recently.It is the season of love after all.Or an advent calendar in which Sam is trying to solve a case. Dean knows exactly who he wants to meet underneath a mistletoe, even if he hasn´t fully admitted it to himself yet. And Cas just wants to spend an amazing Christmas with his two favorite people.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 29
Kudos: 38





	1. 1st of December

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this advent calendar to spread some Christmas spirit among my friends. I decided to share it with y´all this December. I hope you enjoy.

It´s December, not the first of December, but one of first, the second to be specific. Neither Sam nor Dean noticed that though. How could they? They are currently in Arkansas and here it´s still 68° warm. Just now they killed a vampire.  
Just now as in Sam uses the restroom of the diner to wash the blood from his hands while Dean is already ordering a burger with extra bacon. Outside the sun started setting a while ago and the warm light makes everything look golden. However the ceiling lamps spread only a dim light. Nobody cares, people are constantly coming in and leaving the diner. Dean saved them one of the last tables.  
He is looking down at the menu. It is typed out in some font with a probably way to quirky name. When he looks up the waitress smiles at him and tucks a curl behind her ear.  
“Anything else I can get you?”  
It would be very easy to add a cheeky: “Yeah, your number.”  
“That´s all, thank you.”  
She nods and returns to the counter.  
When Sam comes back from the restroom his phone starts ringing or rather one of his phones. He dries his hands off on his jeans and picks up the call. On his way he has to manoeuvre around a waiter carrying two jam-packed trays and a toddler, who is running into the arms of his mother.  
“Yeah, hm,” he says and sits down across from Dean. Then he nods silently.  
Dean asks: “You think their pie is any good?” He nods in the direction of the counter. The waitress shoots a shy smile back at him. Dean looks back down. The apple pie was way more interesting to him then the waitress at the moment.  
But Sam ignores him and says “And why should that be a case for us?” into his phone. Then he nods again. “Alright we´ll take a look at that. See ya.” He ends the call.  
“Who was that?”  
Sam waves at the waitress to show her that he wants to order. “Garth. He has a case for us.”  
She makes her way over, already carrying the beer for Dean. Maybe she opened another button of her blouse.  
“For you.” She places the beverage in front of Dean and leans down a little too much in the process.  
“I´ll have the Caesars salat, please.”  
“Sure.” She replies, but her eyes and obviously her attention stay locked on Dean.  
He, however, keeps tapping the side of his glass and doesn´t even lift his gaze.  
On her way back to the bar she brushes along Dean´s arm, on an not so accidental accident.  
Sam looks at Dean with a questioning look. “Are you all right?”  
“Yeah, why?” The beer is nice and cold.  
“Dude, she was totally flirting with you. Aren´t you gonna do something about it?”  
Dean shrugs. “Nah.”  
“But she is totally your type.” Sam´s eyebrows are furrowed.  
“Don´t feel like it. And since when do know anything about my type anyway.” He stops and realizes that his voice sounded a little too defensive. He then adds in a calmer tone: “So, what kind of case are we talking about?” and takes a big sip of his beer.

A little while later Sam and Dean sit in the Impala and Dean asks: “Are you sure that that’s a case for us? I mean, people go missing all the time.”  
At that moment they turn into the High Way. By now it is pitch-black outside. The headlights cut into the darkness, only a dim glow hits the surroundings. In the diner Sam had only briefly explained the case to him. Then he had returned to the waitress topic, nagging Dean until he could shift the topic to this new history podcast Sam got into recently. It wasn´t necessarily pleasurable to listen to either, but at least Dean could stop defending himself and turn off his brain for a while.  
“But not all in the same area, around the same time, three years in a row. And all without any traces. The victims just vanish. From closed rooms, cars, anywhere basically.”  
Dean passes a few cars as they cross the border to Missouri.  
“That sounds as if Minnesota is completely empty by now. The cops are doing nothing?” Dean turns on the radio. Last Christmas is playing.  
“It´s only a few people every year. Sounds like a Djinn to me, about one victim each week. It would fit their feeding schedule.”  
Dean switches the radio station. Last Christmas is playing. “Godawful song. A Djinn that only kills in the winter?” He changes the station again. George Michael continues singing.  
Sam shrugs. “Maybe he moves around the country in a pattern or something.”  
Dean turns the radio of. The music continues. Dean curses and smacks it two times, only then it goes silent.  
Just the rattle of the Impala is audible, while the two of them drive through the night farther and farther north.


	2. 2nd of December

They arrive in the early hours of the morning. It is still dark outside and will be for the next few hours. If Sam´s watch didn´t say so and if their drive hadn´t been as long they could believe that it is just past midnight.   
Dean parks directly in front of the motel´s reception.   
They book a room. It´s small and the yellow lights make it look dirtier than it actually is. Dean falls asleep almost immediately. He was up all night; he was the driver after all. The thought of letting Sam handle Baby didn´t even cross his mind.   
Sam researches the address of the crime scene. Then he gets into bed as well.  
Just as he is closing his eyes the first snowflakes start falling from the sky. The white blanket outside grows thicker and thicker and muffles all sound. The parking lot is only lit by one flickering street light and the motel´s sign. Every few minutes a car drives by and disturbs the silence. The Snowflakes are only visible when they get caught in the headlights, before they fall onto the street. As soon as the cars disappear behind the next corner just their traces in the slow are left behind and the street goes back to being dark and quiet.  
Inside a floor board creeks. Sam and Dean continue sleeping. Someone is standing in the middle of the room. The light from outside is just enough to make out silhouettes. The person´s face stays hidden. They place something on the desk and freeze for a moment. Then the figure turns around and looks back at the sleeping men. The room goes silent again.  
Sam is woken up by a cough. When he opens his eyes, it is completely bright outside. The snow reflects the sunshine into their window and even the curtains can´t block out the brightness.   
“Dean, if you´re getting sick now… I told you that you need to get more sleep.”  
Dean wakes up with a jolt. “What is going on Sam?”  
But if Dean didn´t cough, who…  
Sam abruptly sits up and looks around the room.   
“What the hell?! What are you doing here Cas?!”  
Now Dean pushes himself up as well and runs his fingers through his hair.   
“Cas?” Dean looks shocked at first, then a smile sneaks unto his face.   
It has been a while since they had seen Cas. Realistically maybe a few weeks, but that was more than enough for Dean to be very happy to have him with him again. Occasionally one of his thoughts about Cas had turned into a prayer, wondering how he was doing, or if he was alright. Cas hadn´t noticed which of the prayer had been on accident and which hadn´t. Sometimes Dean would get lost thinking and suddenly he´d be thrown back into reality by his phone vibrating. Cas had mostly answered Deans prayers via texts. In none of his messages Cas had ever mentioned planning coming over to them though.   
Dean had almost asked him to visit them a few times, he even had the text typed out, but it ended up feeling to sappy for him, so he deleted it.  
Cas is standing at the lower end of their beds and blinks.   
“Do you know advent calendars?”   
The both of them look at him with questioning looks on their faces.  
“What?” Dean squints.  
“I heard about them yesterday. It is a very nice idea. Everyday leading up to Christmas one-“  
“We know about advent calendars,” Sam says and nods.  
“Well” Cas takes a step to the side. “I wanted to surprise you guys, but you just didn´t wake up.”   
Behind him on the desk there are two advent calendars. He even wrapped a little bow around them.  
“Normally one would receive them on the first of December, but since I only learned about them yesterday, I decided that a late gift is better than none at all.”  
There is a little pause, then Sam says:” Thank you, Cas that wouldn´t have been necessary.”  
Dean starts grinning as well and walks over to the bathroom.   
“Thanks Cas.”  
Cas says: “Did you ever hear Last Christmas? It is a very beautiful song.” Then he taps his temple and sighs. “Of course, you heard it before, I totally forgot, I played it on your radio yesterday.”  
“CAS!” Dean shouts from the bathroom and Sam can´t keep from laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There he is! We got Cas on board, so let´s get ready to solve a damn case.


	3. 3rd of December

It takes them a while to leave. Dean takes longer than usual to get his hair to look just right and when they are finally sitting in the car he refuses to drive unless Cas stops messing with his radio.  
At some point Sam is about to leave both of them behind and just walk by himself, cause “I´d still be faster than the two of you.”   
Not even Deans “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole”-phrase worked out this time, Cas was sitting on the backseat after all.  
Only when Sam says: “Get a room.” they shut up. Dean bites his tongue.   
In the end Dean does finally drive, after Cas promised not to try anything. Until 5 miles to their destination he actually keeps that promise. This time it is Driving home for Christmas.  
The man that went missing lives in a small flat on the third floor of an apartment building near the city center. It is not where he presumably vanished from, almost, but not quite. Sam lifts the police tape and lets Cas and Dean pass through first before he enters the scene himself.   
The hallway is narrow but cozy. The wainscoting and red carpet make it feel like a nice hotel.   
Dean steps over the shopping bag and groceries that are laying across the hallway and the entrance of the flat. A net of oranges lays next to the elevator. Smashed as they are, they must have been hit by the elevator doors many times before somebody finally picked them up and put them down next the wall.  
He lifts his badge, so does Cas, this time not even upside down.   
“FBI,” Sam says. “Who is in charge in here?”  
Bill had gone missing in the evening two days ago. So most of the crime scene investigation has already happened, only a handful of officers are still in investigating in and around the apartment.  
An officer steps forward. “Smith” He doesn´t offer to shake their hands. “Since when does the FBI care about these types of cases.”  
Dean lifts an eyebrow. “We´re just following our orders.”  
Cas nods in agreement, but no one is looking at him.  
Sam asks for the basic facts about the case. He only knows as much as Garth and the news told him. The officer seems to be a bit annoyed with them not being informed, but doesn´t say anything about it.  
“His neighbor saw him coming up the stairs. At about 9 pm. Presumably he returned from buying groceries.”   
Sam nods and vaguely gestures at the mess on the floor, as if to say that he could figure that much.  
The officer continues: “Then she heard a rumple and his scream. She went upstairs to ask if he was okay, but he was gone. ”  
Cas walks inside and takes a look at everything. To him it looks completely normal, on the other hand he isn´t exactly sure how an apartment is supposed to look like either. Everything is very tidy. Only the houseplants look a bit withered. But that is not Bill´s fault, it was the first task on his to do list for the evening. Now that he cannot settle it Cas waters them for him.  
Dean only gazes around the corner, then he kneels down to look at the shopping bag. The few things left in there that are not scattered all over the floor, are nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the fresh rosemary maybe, but that seems to be coherent with the potatoes.  
Sam leans down to him and says:” He was definitely surprised by something”  
Dean turns around to him. “Whatever it was, it was fast. He didn´t fight. He didn´t throw these Things away,” He points at the bag, "They would have been way more widespread. He just dropped them.”  
Sam sighs and asks: “Cas? What is the flat like?”  
Cas walks back out of the door. “Cozy, I´d say.”  
Dean grins: “Did you notice anything special? Runes, hex bags, a few sacrificed goats maybe. ”  
Cas thinks that most things about humans in general are quite conspicuous, beginning with the concept of house plants or the kind of gaze Dean throws at him sometimes. He doesn´t want to say that now though, instead he just says: “None of that. It´s very human.”


	4. 4th of December

They split up. This time not because they had a fight, they just want to finish the interrogations as soon as possible.  
Dean is going to pay a visit to the neighbor. Sam is going to interrogate Bill´s father. They nod at each other.  
“Alright, see you later.” The elevator is still locked because of the investigation. So, Dean has no choice but to walk up the stairs toward the neighbor´s apartment. Sam walks them down toward the street.   
Only one officer is still left on the scene and he is inside of apartment. The hallway becomes silent. Then after a moment Sam calls from the lower floor: “Cas, you´re coming with me.”  
Cas had assumed that no order was supposed to mean to hold position. In actuality Sam had suggested that Cas should come with him. Cas just hadn´t listened, he only stared. Not just specifically at Dean but definitely also at Dean. Now he nods, ignores Deans chuckle from upstairs and follows Sam.   
The father of the victim lives in the same part of town only a few blocks down the road.   
He opens the door instantly. He has dark circles under his eyes and his hair is tangled. You could mistake him for a crazy scientist, but only if you didn´t know about his missing son.  
“Your colleagues were here already,” he says after Sam and Cas showed him their badges.  
“Yes Mr. Laurence. But me might have a few different questions. Would it be alright if we came in?”  
Laurence nods and steps to the side. It is warm inside, Sam takes of his jacket, Cas is unfazed.  
They sit down at the kitchen table. The candle on top is not lit.  
“Did you find anything by now?”  
Sam shakes his head and says: “But we have a few leads.”  
The father sighs. He mutters: “Does that even mean anything?” under his breath.  
Cas doesn´t listen to him. “Your son has a very nice apartment.”   
“Excuse me?” Mr. Laurence looks up in confusion.  
Sam kicks Cas under the table, then he quickly asks: “Did Bill behave in any extraordinary way in the last few days.”  
“No. He went to work every day.”  
“So no new contacts or behavioral patterns?”   
“He was always a very upright guy, believe me.” He says a little too fast.  
Sam nods and makes a mental note.  
Cas asks: “Was he haunted?”  
Sam decides to never take Cas to an interrogation ever again.  
Bills father furrows his brows. “Is that supposed to be a sick joke? What kind of question even is that?”  
Dean makes the conscious decision not to read the doormat. Nothing is important enough to be longer than three words but irrelevant enough to be written on a damn doormat.   
He presses the doorbell. There is a little sign that reads: “Flint.”   
It only takes a few seconds until the door opens.   
An elderly lady is standing in front of him. She is about half his size and has one of these short hairstyles that are not just a fashion statement, but a declaration of feeling young.   
“Oh Hello.” She pulls her eyebrows up and smirks lightly. “How can I help you?”  
“Misses Flint?”  
“That is me, but please call me Maggy.”’  
Dean pulls his badge from his pocket.   
“An agent? Tell me what crime did I commit?” She chuckles.   
Dean coughs and stops himself from facepalming.  
“I have a few questions for you about…”  
She gestures widely and Dean recoils to doge her long acrylic fingernails. “Come in, come in. Heavy topics are always easier to discuss with a warm cup in your hand, aren’t they?”   
Then she walks back into her apartment and vanishes around the corner.  
Dean stands there awkwardly for moment, then he squeezes into the hallway and navigates his way through boxes and tons of nutcrackers and reindeer figures. The walls are plastered with pictures and there are garlands hanging on the ceiling.   
There is something standing in every doorway and he is not sure if or how he should follow her.   
“Excuse the mess. I am still decorating.”   
Her voice is coming from the room to his left. But when he looks inside, he can´t see her, his view is blocked. Dean is startled by a huge papercut out of Santa Clause staring back at him.   
“Make yourself at home! The living room is just down the hall to your right, honey.”  
Dean gulps at the pet name, then walks further inside her apartment.   
In her windows Christmas lights shine in every color and he almost pukes when he sees her Christmas tree.   
Instead he lifts his eyebrows and mutters: “Magenta, I guess.”   
Her sofa is one of those you sink into so far, that you are close to drowning. There is so much happening that he just looks around for a while, taking it all in until Maggy is standing in front of him and hands him a cup of hot cocoa.  
“Do you like what you see?” She laughs at her own innuendo and sits down a little to close next to him. Dean takes a deep breath and smiles.  
“Alright Misses, what did you witness exactly?”  
“Please call me Maggy, you are making me feel like an old woman.” While she says that she clicks her nails against her mug.   
Dean blinks. “Okay, Maggy.”  
She nods. “Take a sip.”  
Dean takes a sip. It´s still too hot and he burns his tongue, but tries cover it by coughing again. He is unsure whether she wants to murder or do other things to him, and he isn´t sure what he would prefer either.   
“You are not getting sick, are you? Do you want me to take care of you? Trust me I´ve got a cure that works wonders.” No wink had ever disturbed Dean as much as hers did in this very moment.  
Dean violently shakes his head. “Just something stuck in my throat. So, the incident?” He tries again.   
“Which incide- Yes right. He stepped into the elevator while I was walking up the stairs. I am staying fit, you know?” She drinks a bit of her cocoa and seems to wait for his reaction.  
Dean just looks at her silently.  
She continues: “Then I heard him scream, now from the third floor, of course, he had been using the elevator after all. And a rumble. That must have been all those oranges.”   
Dean shifts away from her. “But when I got up there, he was gone.”  
“Did you see anyone else on the stairs or any hallway?”   
“No one, honey. It was almost a bit eerie, but that might have been because it was so dark.” She sits a little closer to Dean again. Their knees are almost touching and he has to turn his head in an unnatural way to ask her:  
“Why dark? Did the lights flicker or something?”  
“No the lights were fine. But it was 9 pm, so of course it was a bit dark.”   
If she hadn´t drank as fast, her gestures would have caused significant cocoa spillage.   
“Could you describe his scream? Did he sound like he was in pain?”  
“I´d say that it sounded rather surprised. But I can never be sure with that guy, it could have been pain.”  
She takes a little break and adds more to herself.   
“There is just something about that guy, I´m telling you. I don´t care what the judge said about him.”


	5. 5th of December

They meet up again for dinner.  
At first Dean walks straight past the restaurant. Sam hadn´t sent the wrong address to him, it just doesn´t occur to Dean that he has already arrived.  
The restaurant simply looks to nice.   
The light inside is warm and through the window Dean can spot a fireplace in the corner. There are candles on every table and the napkins are actually made of fabric.   
He throws a quick gaze into the window while passing the restaurant, but stop abruptly when he spots a suspiciously long-haired guy next to a man in a trench coat in the back from the corner of his eye. He turns around and takes a closer look.   
Cas waves at him.   
When Dean walks through the door a little bell above the door rings. He makes his way over to Sam und Cas. They sit right next to the chimney.  
“So, we´re going fancy today?” he asks and sits down across from them.  
Sam shrugs. “I don´t know, Cas picked it out.”  
Cas nods and smiles pridefully.   
“But you don´t eat.” Dean states and takes off his jacket.   
“Oh, I know. I just thought the atmosphere would be nice. It is very festive, don´t you think?.”  
Sam chuckles and shakes his head.  
“Since when are you such a Christmas freak, anyway?” Dean asks and beckons the waiter over.  
Cas doesn´t answer. Maybe Sam and Dean would understand, but he doesn´t feel like trying. The truth is that this is his first Christmas on earth without an immediate danger of the end of the world and he wants to take the chance to experience the holiday in its entirety.   
Dean orders the first meal with meat he spots on the menu. Sam decides to get a soup. Then Sam begins to recount their experience:” The father didn´t notice anything. Apparently, Bill´s behavior in was pretty normal. No change in routine, no nothing. At least we know that he probably wasn´t possessed. Not that anything was pointing toward that anyways.” Then he shakes his head and smiles:” Cas´ questions probably made Mr. Laurence think that Cas is some sort of demon though,”   
“Was it that bad?” Dean asks but keeping up Sam´s lighthearted tone.  
“Worse.” Sam chuckles.   
Cas doesn´t seem offended, but not as if he got the joke either.   
“He´s just poking fun, you´ll get better.” Dean reaches out to pet Cas forearm on the table.   
Cas looks up at him and smiles. The light of the chimney reflects in his eyes. It shouldn´t look so beautiful to Dean, the yellow and orange surrounded by the brightest of all blues, but it just does. Cas blinks slowly, not in any sort of creepy way, it looks more like slow motion, or maybe it doesn´t and it is all in Deans head. That doesn´t make it any less real though. Fires must have been solely invented for moments like this, Dean thinks. The heat colors Cas cheeks pink and the flickering light creates paintings of shadows on his skin.   
“How ´bout you, Dean? Did you find out anything new?”  
Dean rips his gaze from Cas and shrugs. “Not much. She was mostly trying to get into my pants, I think.”  
“Come again?” Sam smirks.  
Cas asks himself why a woman would try to fit into Dean´s pants, when they fit him so nicely.   
Dean rolls his eyes. “You know the ladies, they just can´t get enough of me.” There is less pride and more annoyance in his voice, like he is saying it because he thinks he has to.  
“Anyway, she told me the same things, she told the officer. So, nothing new on that front.” He pauses for a second, thinking if there was really nothing he could tell them. “She definitely can´t stand Bill. She let slip that he was accused of tax fraud but acquitted of charge, because there wasn´t enough evidence.”  
“Maybe it´s a ghost seeking vengeance.”  
“The ghost of a deceived tax collector? Don´t think so. That’s all, she didn´t see anything, she was in the wrong floor when it happened. Not that she sees much of anything anymore.”  
Sam grins: “Seem like she couldn´t see enough of you.”  
Only then Dean notices the lipstick print on his collar, she left when she hugged him goodbye. He groans and tries to rub it away. Of course, that only makes it worse.   
“So, we have no lead,” Cas says, he didn´t see the print and he isn´t exactly sure what they are talking about either. All he knows is that he doesn´t like this neighbor very much.  
Later they step back onto the street to go back to the hotel. The fireplace is replaced by streetlights, the heat of the fire by gusts of wind carrying snow.  
“Damn, it´s cold.” Dean is wearing the same thin jacket from their last case in Arkansas.  
“Maybe that is why he kept coal in his hallway.”  
Sam looks at Cas questioningly. “What are you talking about?”  
“The victim. He had full box of it.”  
Dean stops walking. “Weird, I didn´t see a chimney. What kind of box are we talking about?”  
“It was about this big,” Cas gestures loosely, “And it was wrapped, red and green, I think. A giftbox.”  
“Why didn´t you say anything sooner, Cas? That´s it. That has to be it.” Sam´s eyes are glowing; Cas and Dean are only looking at each other confused.”


	6. 6th of December

“Mind letting us know what the hell you´re talking about?” Sometimes Sam´s genius outbursts are a bit much for Dean to take.  
Dean probably would have understood it a little faster if his childhood had been nicer, or in Cas´ case if he had ever been a child at all.  
“It´s Christmas,” Sam said as if that would explain anything.  
Cas furrowed his brows. “To my understanding Christmas is celebrated on December the 25th and not before, I am doubting that –“  
“Of course not. The box is Christmas.”  
Dean nodded slowly. “You think it´s about the naughty list?”  
“Yeah, good kids get presents, bad kids get a box of coal. Whatever jumped Bill, it´s trying to punish him.”

But that all happened yesterday evening.  
Right now, they are entering the biggest mall around to “visit Santa”.  
They don´t have to search for long. They probably wouldn´t have been able to miss it if they tried.  
The scenery is built in between the escalators. In front of it a line is forming, even though it is still early.  
Cas is startled when he sees the man, he has seen in so many drawings and pictures, right in front of him. He looks straight out of a movie. His beard is as white as the fake snow surrounding him. The color of his coat matches the ornaments on the gigantic Christmas tree behind him perfectly. The elves around him have pointy ears, and the bells on their shoes ring whenever they take a step.  
“Why is he here?” Cas eyes are wide open, his hands are shaky. Santa is very famous after all.  
Dean chuckles. “People have their children tell him what they want for Christmas and then take notes.”  
“He has got the time for that?”  
That question has Dean smiling at him fondly. He ends up letting Cas believe in Santa. Cas just looks way to adorable being so starstruck.  
They show the security guards their badges and walk past the line.  
One of the waiting kids yells:” Line cutter!” at them, but when Dean gives her a serious look, she goes quiet instantly.  
They step onto the snowy surface. All the actors turn to them, it is not often that a group of men in suits wants to tell Santa about their wish list.  
“Good morning. I´m agent Taylor. These are my partners May and Deacon. We have a few questions we´d like to ask you.” Sam says. A confused girl hops from Santa´s lap and runs back into her mother´s arms. She was almost done describing her dream pony to Santa anyway.  
Behind them the security guards dissolve the line.  
Before they can go on to ask any questions to the actors a mother right at the front starts audibly complaining.  
“So, you are telling me, that we are just supposed to leave and come back later? We have been waiting for twenty minutes. We are absolutely not going anywhere.”  
The guard takes a deep breath. “Ms., there is an investigation going on, you have to respect-“  
“Well, the police should respect the business hours of this mall. I would like to talk to your-“  
Dean turns around to her. “Could you keep quiet for a second?”  
She jerks back. “Excuse me?”  
But Dean has already turned his attention back to the case.  
Sam walks away with one of the security guards, to examine the video tapes of the last few days, to check if he can spot Bill in any of them. Cas and Dean split the interrogation in half, Dean talks to the two elves, Cas gets to meet Santa.  
“Do you recognize this man?” Dean asks and holds up a photo of Bill Laurence.  
“Not that I remember,” the younger of the elves says. The other one just shakes his head and sighs.  
“Where were you on the second of December between 12 and 2 pm?”  
The older elf, who is actually stocky grumpy man says: “I was here. During the whole month of December, I am here whenever the mall is open. There are video tapes to prove that. And what has any of this to do with us?”  
“My colleague is just sighting these tapes, so there shouldn´t be a problem if you´re really in them. Have you ever been to the martin road before?”  
The elf rolls his eyes. “Probably at some point. Do you remember all the roads you have been to?”  
Dean groans, all he wants is a normal answer to his questions, but apparently it´s not his lucky day.  
A few minutes later Sam returns with a security guard.  
“You got anything?”  
Dean shakes his head and tries to ignore the stares the elves shoot him.  
Sam shrugs: “Bill hasn´t been here in the last week, at least he is not in the footage. And none of the actors left when he vanished. It´s all way to normal.”  
“So, we got nothing?”  
“Except Cas found something:”  
Dean sighs and he looks around. “Where is he anyway?”


	7. 7th of December

Cas has been gone for a while, they just haven´t noticed it up to this point.   
Last time Dean looked over to him Cas was still talking to Santa Clause. Dean could see how his eyes sparkled, but he couldn´t hear what he said.   
Cas tried to put on a professional face and asked: “Is it possible for me to ask you a quick question before we begin?”   
Santa shrugged: “What is one question more. Do your worst.”  
Cas nodded to himself. This was a good start. “Is the offer to wish for presents also available for ang… adults?”  
Santa furrowed his brows and rolled his eyes. Cas just blinked in confusion, he couldn´t have been the first to ask this question.  
”Hahaha. Very funny, really, extremely funny.”   
Cas doesn´t react, something tells him that the laugh was not genuine.  
“You are going to have to buy them yourself.”   
Cas nodded and thought he had found his own mistake, it must have been the phrasing, obviously.  
“They are not for me, they´re for…” He pointed at Dean, who stood a few meters away from him. He was practically towering the elf. Dean was facing away from him, so Cas could only see his back. His shoulders seemed angular in that jacket, even more so then usual. “For… well aahm…” He ripped his gaze away from Dean. “For my friends. I don´t need anything for myself.”  
Santa groaned. “We´re in a damn mall, buy your shit yourself. Just because I work as a costumed sales assistant on the side, that is no invitation to fuck me over. Not all of us can go to college. That how life is sometimes. Working at the FBI doesn´t make you a fucking better person.”   
With these words he yanks the Santa hat from his head. “I´m gonna have a smoke outside. If you want to ask me any real question send one of your colleagues. I don´t want to see your face again.”  
A little girl pointed at him and said: “Daddy look! Santa is bald.”   
Santa turned around and looked her straight in the eye.  
“You can all go to hell! I am quitting. And I hate Christmas for fucks sake!”  
Then he storms outside.  
When thinking about it, it is quite striking that Dean missed all of this. But he himself was stuck in a heated discussion with an elf who was convinced that their interrogation was breaking all laws of the constitution.   
Cas just stood there for a moment. Did he just steal Christmas? If Santa quit his job, who was going to bring presents to everyone? He guessed that the elves were still going to continue working, Misses Clause would have to take care of the delivering part then.   
But just in case Cas would follow Santa´s advice. Not to go to hell… again, but to buy the presents himself.  
It didn´t take him very long to find a stationary shop, and even less to find their selection of cards.   
The rest of the process is significantly harder. He doesn´t want to buy just any card, it has to be the right one.   
There are two he simply can´t choose between. One has a glittery ornament in the front, the other one has cartoon reindeer. He is creating a Pro Con list in his head, because he can´t decide which one he thinks is more fitting.  
If he is not even able to complete that simple task, how should he even start to actually write something inside of the card. He has never really written a letter before. There are a lot of things he could say, a lot of things he wants to write. But he is going to be left wondering what is appropriate.  
He ends up buying both of them to end his train of thoughts and because he realizes that he needs one for each Winchester any way.   
When Dean walks around the corner, he quickly drops them into the bag with the presents he just bought.   
It takes Dean a moment to spot him at the register. But when he does, he walks over way faster than necessary.  
“Cas! What are you doing here? We were worried about you.”  
I was worried about you, would have been more accurate, as Sam stayed behind waiting with the elves completely relaxed.   
“I was shopping.”   
Dean shakes his head. “Just say something next time, dude. Thought the thing jumped you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should probably follow Cas´ example, I´ve got a lot of Christmas Shopping left to do.


	8. 8th of December

A few days go by and a lot of things happen. An elf accuses Dean of “abuse of police authority”. But he there was no way Dean could have heard of that anything about that. Instead an agent Taylor from California has to have a serious talk with his superior and explain to him that he hadn´t been to Minnesota in years.   
The mall in St. Cloud has to employ a new Santa. His beard is a bit shorter, but at least he doesn´t constantly reek of cigarettes. Sometimes he even manages to cheer up the grumpy elf. In hindsight Cas doesn´t have to feel bad about what happened. Not that he does, he is pretty sure he didn´t steal Christmas after all, because if he had it would probably be all over the news by now. However, he is still wondering why Santa looked so kind in all the pictures, if he is such a disagreeable guy in reality.   
While a lot of things are happening because of Sam, Dean and Cas, nothing really happens to them. After Santa turned out to have nothing do with anything, you could call it a cold sent, he lives at the north pole after all, they have to search for something new. At first, they are very hopeful, there are a ton of possibilities. In December basically everything is related to the holidays in some way or another.   
They start with the churches, even though Cas emphasizes that the American Christmas traditions are far away from the original understanding of Christmas.   
Dean answers with a cheeky: “Back to the roots.” Cas shakes his head, but he can´t deny that he doesn´t mind seeing Dean dressed as a priest. It is quite the opposite reaction of what the costume should make Cas feel.   
But Cas turns out to be right. None of the Priests is an old Christmas focused God.

Next, they visit the local Christmas fair. Dean can´t help but notice how, Cas eyes sparkle brighter than all the fairy lights of the market combined. The booths look like little huts from some foreign village, with snow on every roof. It smells of cinnamon and oranges. But they can only enjoy that until their noses become too cold to smell anything.  
They got there in the late afternoon, so it is already starting to get darker. The snow is dancing in the spotlight. Gusts of wind drag it down to the ground and blow it back up again.  
There are too many people to walk in one straight line from one seller to next. They can´t interrogate everyone, so they mostly try to get an overview of the situation and look for any details that might be important.   
Cas notices a lot of couples walking around hand in hand. He makes a mental note that fairs are apparently places in which acting out on feeling of romance is appropriate in some extent at least.   
Every woman who sells tea or spices is a witch to Sam, but none of them turns out to be supernatural in any way, at least from what they can tell from looking at them. assortment. The hot wine punch doesn´t even taste like blood in the slightest way.   
“Disappointing,” Dean says when they get back to the hotel. They got nothing but cold feet from that. But at least Cas had fun.  
While all leads turn to thin air in front of their eyes, everything with any connection to Christmas becomes suspicious to them.  
They take a look at the place where Bill bought his Christmas tree. Of course, they find out nothing, but how fast fir needles get stuck in your pockets.   
Their eyes focus on everything red or green.   
Sam suggests to check out decoration shops. Cas loves the idea. He still needs a few things anyways, he says. Dean hates the plan, and wants to cancel the whole case all together, when finally, something happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter than usual, because I had a rather stressful weekend, I did a lot of fun things though. I hope y´all had a good weekend as well and enjoyed the chapter regardless of its length.


	9. 9th of December

It´s evening. Outside of their window the hotel´s Christmas lights are glistening. Just today an employee had to bring the lamps and figures outside. Rudolf looks like any other reindeer, his nose isn´t glowing. The lightbulb needs to be changed. The snow of the last few days is still covering the entire sidewalk, but no one cared enough to clear it. They can´t go outside without getting their feet wet.   
Sam has gone into full research mode, maybe he is completing the list of shops that might sell Christmas decorations, he started yesterday. The cold light of the display illuminates his face. He hasn´t said a single word in an hour.   
Dean is sitting on his bed, drinking beer not the hot cocoa Cas bought. He simply couldn´t bear to taste anything sweet again, not after eating all those cookies they got at the Christmas fair. Dean called it research; Sam rolled his eyes.   
Cas´ Christmas shopping is going way more successful then all of their interrogations and all the investigation of the last few days combined. He is currently lighting a candle,   
“To make the room feel more festive,” he said. It is sitting on the table right next to Sam´s laptop. He is on his fourth match when the wick finally catches fire.   
The flickering candle light clashes with the brightness of Sam´s laptop and Cas smiles at the contrast. Then his fingers start to feel warm, very warm. The flame has almost climbed up the entire match. He drops it down onto the table immediately. His fingers are red, not burned yet but definitely irritated. Slowly the tabletop starts to smolder. A bit of smoke arises. The fall didn´t put out the match.  
Dean jumps up, rushes across the room and slams his bottle down on it. The glass doesn´t shatter, but the beer splashes through the opening and drips onto his hand. Dean turns to Cas and takes a step into his direction.   
“What was that, Cas? Are you trying to kill all of us?”  
Cas freezes “I am sorry, Dean.”   
Dean groans. “Lighting a damn candle isn´t that difficult. You know what…I” He backs off, sits back down and runs his hands across his face.   
It takes a moment for Cas to start to move again. He looks at Dean, prepared to look away immediately. But as soon as their eyes meet Deans gaze softens.  
“Sorry. I overreacted. This fucking case is killing me.”   
Cas nods, the corners of his lips raised ever so slightly.   
Sam´s eyes are still glued to his laptop; his hands barely stop typing. He didn´t look up once. This was the hard way, just asking Cas would have been faster. He visited every single decoration store in town. Now there are mini-Christmas trees on the table and fairy lights cling to the curtain pole. But he is most proud of the little angel figure he brought. He found it very amusing, even though its representation is incredibly far off.  
Dean is thinking, normally they don´t give up on cases. But he is not willing to waste his time either, especially since they could help so many people while they are just sitting around waiting.   
Bill probably just faked his disappearing to escape the court, he thinks.   
He makes up his mind. They should get away, before they start to murder each other out of frustration. He just doesn´t know how to tell Sam about his decision.   
Sam won´t be willing to just give up on Bill, until it is proven that he ran away.   
He is going to try it anyway. “Sam, I think…”  
“I got something.”   
Cas looks up from his new snow globe and tilts his head.  
“A woman vanished, about half an hour away from here.”  
“Thank God.” Dean throws his head back.  
Sam lifts his eyebrows. “I don´t think you should phrase it that way.”  
“You know what I mean. I was going insane here.”


	10. 10th of December

They started driving last night, after Cas had packed all his decorations and then spent the night in a small motel.   
The next morning came way to fast and it hadn´t stopped snowing all night.   
The Impala is hidden underneath the thick blanket, and even though Cas thinks that it looks quite comfortable, Dean is not amused. He pushes all snow of the roof with one swift movement of his arm, which of course, soaks his sleeve completely.   
“Why does no damn hotel round here have garage.”   
Sam shrugs and gets into the car to grab the ice scraper. There is nothing he could say to lighten Deans mood at this point any way.   
Cas stays outside. As Dean tries to free the hood without getting his cloths any wetter, Cas watches him closely. Snowflakes are falling onto him and rest in his hair. A few land on his cheek, and as his body heat melts them, the little drops of water left behind sparkle in the pale sunlight. Deans nose becomes red from the cold and just like that his grumpy expression seems nothing short of captivating to Cas.   
“Cas? Aren´t you coming inside?” Sam asks through the opened passenger door.   
Cas nods without lifting his gaze. Then he gets into the car.  
The engine doesn´t start at first, but with some sweet talk from Dean and maybe just to smallest bit of magical help from Cas, they managed to leave the parking lot.

The house of Amanda Keating is located a bit outside of town and is surrounded by a huge yard. However, the garden is about the last thing they notice.   
“What happened here?” Cas asked while they get out of the car.   
A few windows are broken and the walls are covered in soot and ashes.  
“There was a fire last Saturday.” Sam recalls the information from the article he read yesterday.  
Dean rolls his eyes. “A fire? No shit.”  
As they walk towards the front door Sam takes note of the many fresh footsteps in the snow. The investigation is still going.  
The doormat is covered in black dust. But still Cas decides it would be more polite to use it then to bring all this fresh snow into the hallway.  
They can look into the living room. However, there is not much left inside to show what the rooms purpose once was. The fibers of the carpet melted and burned, there is no way anyone could tell, which pattern it had. Instead of furniture fuliginous pieces are laying on the floor. Only shreds of the curtains are left behind.   
A few officials are still around. A man is crouching next to the window and taking pictures of the broken pieces of glass on the floor.   
It takes a moment before somebody notices.  
She finishes her sentence and makes her way over. The officer she was talking to goes straight back to work. Her steps are little too wide and her ponytail is pulled back a little too tightly to go unnoticed.   
Sam takes a step in her direction and smiles politely. But her worry lines only become more apparent.  
“Agent Walsh,” he shows her his FBI badge. “These are my partners Smith and Mayer.“ He loosely points behind him. Dean nods, while Cas is still trying to pull his badge out of his pocket.   
“Brooke.” She responds and shakes their hands. Dean bites his tongue as he tries not to flinch when she squeezes his hand.   
“What can I do for you?”   
Sam turns to Dean and Cas before looking back at her.   
“Could you show me around and brief me about your findings? My partners will take a look at the scene.”  
She looks them up and down. “Don´t you trust our investigations?”  
“We do,” Cas smiles and nods enthusiastically “but we might look for different clues, like s-”   
Dean nudges him with his elbow and takes over. “Similarities to other cases.”   
The officer nods. “Off course.” Then she walks towards the kitchen. Sam follows her, after raising his eyebrows at them.   
Dean and Cas are left alone in the hallway.   
“I wasn´t going to say anything, Dean. “   
“You sure?” Dean lifts an eyebrow, but it falls back down immediately when he sees Cas´ frown,  
“Alright, alright. How ´bout I´ll take the upstairs and you take a look around here?”   
“Okay.”   
Cas eyes can´t help follow him when he walks up the stairs.

“This was the source of the fire.” The officer points at the oven or rather what is left of it. The plastic has melted and disfigured the design completely.  
“So it was not a case of arson?” Sam lets his gaze wander, but he can´t spot anything suspicious.   
“That is at least not what it looks like. She was probably baking cookies, but never took them out of the oven. She wasn´t there so extinguish the flames either. One of the neighbors called the fire department.”   
A few minutes later Dean walks up to Sam.   
“Guess what I found.” He opens his jacket a little bit to reveal small box wrapped in red and green. The lid is closed, but by the dark fingerprint smudges left on the wrapping paper Sam already knows what it is filled with.   
“It stood on her nightstand.”


	11. 11th of December

They dress up as priests to meet Amanda´s son. Not Cas though, he doesn´t come with them. Sam said that three priests would be a bit much. Dean disagrees silently, not directly with Sam´s argument, but rather its consequence. But there is nothing he could say without getting weird looks from Sam. Cas has never been the most empathetic person during interrogations and he can definitely get along by himself.   
Cas has something else to do anyways, he says.   
Amanda´s son only takes a minute to open the door. There are no bags under his eyes and his shirt looks freshly ironed.   
“How can I help you?”   
“The St. Jude congregation sent us; we are here to lent you support during this difficult time.” Sam smiles mildly. “May we come in?”  
Shortly thereafter they sit on a sofa. The pillows are color coordinated with the carpet and a few magazines are neatly laying on the coffee table. Sunlight shines into the room through the curtains. Sam starts off with some light small talk.  
No one makes any hot cocoa for them and Dean is very thankful for that. He would do a lot to forget about Maggy and the way she looked at him. To distract him from his own thoughts he asks:  
“How are you feeling?”  
The son, James is his name, shrugs. “It sucks obviously, but I am honestly mostly disappointed.”  
Sam looks at Dean and lifts his eyebrows, then he turns to James.  
“Why disappointed?”  
“I just thought that she had changed.”  
“Did she disappear before?”  
James huffs. “It was quite the habit, when I was a kid. She´d just walk out of the door and vanish, sometimes for days.”  
“But she didn´t recently?” Sam hates that he can´t bring a notebook with him in this costume. Dressing up as FBI agents certainly has its perks, but it was unfit for the occasion.   
“She got probation for possession of drugs and they sent her to rehab. Afterwards she was my mum again. Went to work and everything, she really made herself a living. Until now, I guess. “  
Sam would have liked to tell him, that his mother did not fail him, but he isn´t sure if Amanda being abducted and probably dead is better in any way. So, he quotes the bible, a part he memorized for days like today and says that she might find herself again soon.

“I think we´ve found a pattern,” is the first thing Sam says when he opens the hotel room door, even before checking whether or not Cas is inside. Luckily, he is.   
The words “How was your day?” almost slip out of Dean´s mouth but he holds them back. He is afraid that the sarcastic comment about Sam being so forward, could be interpreted in a sappy “I missed you” kind of way, and maybe even more afraid of the part of him that meant them exactly that way.   
Cas scrambles to hide his purchases under Dean´s bed.  
“Both victims have been in front of the court.” Sam takes of his coat.   
“Interesting.” Cas nods, he squints then says: “May I add something? So far it has been a person every Sunday leading up to Christmas.”   
“God dammit. This really is a Christmas case, isn´t it?” Dean groans.  
“It is definitely something that is into rituals. Maybe some ancient god. Or a ghost or something.” Sam takes of his shoe and freezes mid-process. “But ghosts don´t move cities on their own.” He speaks a little quieter.   
Neither Dean nor Cas are listening to him anymore anyways.   
“Did anything else happen?” Cas asks in a less serious tone.  
“Nah, not really. Except that Sam felt the need to log a Christmas tree, apparently.” Dean chuckles.  
Cas looks him questioningly.   
“It got stuck on his shirt and he almost tipped it over. Don’t worry I caught it.”   
Cas smiles.  
“How was your day while we are at it.” Asking this way seems far more reasonable and normal to Dean and he congratulates himself for being so inconspicuous. He doesn´t ask himself what he is trying to be inconspicuous about though.  
Cas eyes start growing, from joy not from his grace.  
“I have been to the Christmas fair. It was great. I got you some candied almonds.”   
Before Dean can thank him, no matter how much he dislikes Christmas, these almonds are indisputably great, Sam breaks into their conversation.   
“Did you recognize any of the sellers?”


	12. 12th of December

“Seriously?” Dean groans when he steps out of the car. They are a few streets away from the Christmas fair and he can already hear a small orchestra play Last Christmas. He looks at Cas, but he just replies teasingly: “It wasn´t me, this time.”   
They walk toward the entrance and as the music becomes louder Cas quietly starts humming along. It is just loud enough for Dean to hear and as much as he hates that damn song he cannot deny how much the low sound of Cas´ voice is improving it.  
The fair is bigger and nicer than the last one, and even though he saw it just yesterday Cas can´t stop smiling.   
“The farther you get up-north the more obsessed people are with Christmas, or what?” Dean stuffs his hands deep into his pockets, even if the thin fabric is barely keeping out the cold. They walk through the improvised entry gate.   
Cas steps into a surprisingly deep bit of snow, his foot sinks in and the other one can´t find any footing, except for some loose snow he kicks all over the place. He stumbles. His hands are flying through the air, trying to hold on to anything and ending up right on Dean´s arm, just in time for him not to fall. Dean hands reach out to his shoulders to steady him.   
“Sorry.” He looks up at Dean, his cheeks have been turned red by the cold. Cas can´t help but notice how the contrast makes his eyes look even more green. He stares at him silently for a second, spotting a few new freckles, feeling the little bit of space that is left between them, until he sees a plant hanging from the top of the gateway.   
It is a mistletoe, he read about it during his Christmas research.   
Dean blinks quickly, even rubs Cas´ shoulder a little bit, needing his eyes his, attention back on him.   
“Isn´t that a …”  
Dean follows his gaze. It feels like something inside of him is dropping. His breath becomes unsteady.  
He looks back at Cas. Cas hasn´t let go of his jacket yet. His hands seem to burn right through the fabric and warm Dean´s arm. A snowflake lands on his nose and melts immediately. Dean swallows, his mouth is dry.   
Sam turns around to them, grins and lifts his eyebrows. He doesn´t say anything, he wouldn´t dare to interrupt.  
But noticing Sam right there is enough for Dean to cough and make Cas stand up straight again. “That is a Christmas rose.”  
Cas nods slowly, but he is pretty sure that Christmas roses don´t grow red berries.  
The first booth sells glühwein and Irish coffee. Sam shoots Dean a questioning look. Dean exaggerates his nod. “I´m not doing this again without alcohol.”   
They stand around a table while they drink; the music is becoming louder and, in this case, it means the source is getting closer. It seems to be a marching band. Dean takes a step backwards towards the exit almost in slow-motion. The second step is a bit faster and then he is straight up walking away from their table. Sam shakes his head at him. “Come on, dude. I am not doing this by myself.”  
Before Dean can think of a good excuse Sam adds: “You can do this, man. I believe in you.”   
In the same moment Cas starts clapping along.  
The fair spreads across a few streets.  
“Alright Cas, so where were you saying are the sellers from last time?” Sam asks a little later.  
It might have been the glühwein, even though Cas can take stomach a lot of alcohol, or the tight streets. Cas just responds: “I don´t know, maybe back there.” Meanwhile he points to the general direction where all of the other booths are standing.  
Sam sighs. “Thank you, Cas. Helpful as always.”  
Dean shoots him a serious glance, Cas is not stupid after all. He is even close to saying something to Sam when he replies:   
“You are very welcome. Do any of you want some more?” He doesn´t wait for an answer but walks backwards toward the booth.   
“I don´t think he is going to be of much more help.” Sam shrugs and no matter how hard he tries Dean cannot disagree.  
“Cas! How ´bout you wait here and we take a look around?”  
Dean adds: “But don´t overdo it!” Then he turns to Sam. “I´ll go left and you take the right.”   
Sam nods, then they part ways.   
Cas says:” I don´t know what you mean.” But they are already too far away to understand him.


	13. 13th of December

They are both lucky, even if not in the same way. It takes only a few minutes until Sam catches a glimpse of a small angel statue from the corner of his eyes and steps closer. It looks just like the one Cas is so proud of and when he lifts his gaze he knows why. He remembers the woman sitting in the booth. She looks like the epitome of a grandma, white curls, rosy cheeks and glasses that seemed way too tiny to be able to see anything through.   
Dean has candied almonds in one and a bratwurst in his other hand. He got the half with the food court, so he is at least well feed while searching.  
It is doubtable whether or not he also would have bought the almonds if he hadn´t been alone. His I-hate-Christmas-attitude had been fading into more of a façade in the last few days. Maybe Cas is slowly warming his heart for Christmas, or maybe the overexposure numbs him to all festiveness.   
He has already explored most of his half and the glühwein from earlier is not going to keep him warm forever. The cold has turned his hands almost as red as Santa´s coat, because he is to packed with food to put them into his pockets. When loses feeling in one of his toes he starts to wonder if it is even worth wasting his time anymore.   
He walks around the last corner and tries to get a quick overview of the situation, so he can turn around without feeling bad about it. But his plans abruptly come to a halt when he stumbles over a sleigh that is just randomly sitting on the floor. Well not that randomly, it is standing right in front of a booth filled with other wooden products.   
Dean is just about to apologize to the seller when he recognizes him.   
Back on the other fair Cas was convinced that he had to be a brother of Santa. He has white hair and a beard, and Cas is bad with faces after all.   
Dean isn´t the best with faces either, at least with old bearded men that are not Bobby. Dean steps closer and greats him with his friendliest smile.   
“Hello.” The man smiles back.  
“May I asks what this sleigh is made out of?”   
“Of course.” He braces himself on the counter. “A nice work made from beechwood. Even your grandchildren will still be able to use it.” His hands have been roughened by tools and wood chippings.  
“I can tell.” Dean nods as if he knows anything about the differences between types of wood. “I should probably consult my wife about this. You see, we are still looking for a present for our daughter.” Dean feels his pockets. “I must have forgotten my phone at home. Is it possible that I come back or do you switch fairs?”   
Santa´s brother shakes his head. “I´ll still be here, if you make it by tomorrow, after that I´ll be at another fair. About 60 miles up north.”  
“I´ll try my best.” Dean smiles, then he continues walking and eating.  
A few minutes later his phone starts to ring. It is Sam.   
“Dean, I think you should head over here.”   
Dean can almost hear his eyeroll.  
“I will, if you tell me where the hell you are.”  
“Next to Cas.”  
Dean isn´t sure whether he should be worried or not, but it can´t hurt to hurry up a bit. He is through with his side of the market anyways.   
He maneuvers through the crowd of people, almost stepping on a small dog in the process.   
When he arrives, Sam is standing alone next the booth where they left Cas.   
“Where is he?”  
“I sat him down into the car. I think he had too much glühwein.”  
Dean looks at him questioningly. “Angels can get drunk?”  
“I don´t know, dude. He said something about wanting to really taste it and turning something off, or something. I couldn´t make any more of his gibberish.”  
“If he pukes onto the seats, it´s on you.”  
“Should I have chained him to a snowman instead?” Sam chuckles.  
“You could have given it a try.”   
They start walking towards the car.   
“Did you at least find anything?”


	14. 14th of December

Dean drives slower than he normally would. The streets are icy and he doesn´t want to make Cas feel any worse than he already is. On the way they talk about their findings. Sam met the woman who sold Cas his Angel figure, or his “mini me”, as he adds from the backseat. She changes markets as well.   
At some point Cas stops listening to them. He is stuck between complete happiness and total nausea. Dean forced him to keep a bucket on his lab. Cas doesn´t even understand why until they hit a bump in the road. He barely manages to keep it all inside.   
A few minutes later he can´t keep from laughing.   
“You could call that testing your limits.” Dean says to him. “But normal people go through that phase at 15.”  
Cas laughs, then he pukes into the bucket. 

It is late when they get back. They decide to delay any further actions to the next morning, when Cas is hopefully a bit less disruptive.   
Dean takes off Cas´ shoes and covers him with his blanket.   
“But Dean;” He starts giggling, “Did you forget that I don´t sleep?”  
“Trust me you will be sleeping. Good night.”  
Five minutes later Cas is asleep.   
Dean looks at the sofa, then his bed with Cas in it. It is pretty wide; he could easily sleep on there without Cas even noticing. Not that he would care, he wouldn´t understand the implications anyways. But Dean understands them. He really wants to be next to Cas, even though he is drunk, and that thought alone makes him decide.  
When Sam comes out of the bathroom, Dean sits on the shaky sofa. If Dean were to lay down his feet would surely be hanging over the edge. Sam raises his eyebrows.   
“You´re not sleeping on that thing.”  
“Yeah, I am. Cas´s got the bed.”   
Sam rolls his eyes. Cas is curled up into a ball, Dean could go full starfish mode next to him and there would still be enough space.  
“I don´t know if you noticed, but that thing is so damn squeaky that you´d wake yourself up. I´m sure Cas won´t mind.”   
Dean shrugs but gets up. The sofa doesn´t make a sound, but he isn´t going to turn down the bed, now that Sam has actually given him a justification for it.   
When he gets under the covers, he is careful not to disturb Cas, although not even an archangel could have woken him up at this moment.   
Dean makes sure there is a reasonable amount of space between them, but as soon as Sam turns of the lights, he inches a little closer to Cas.   
The night comes and the morning follows. The snow outside reflects the sunlight and the curtains are too thin to keep the day from creeping in. Cas wakes up from a headache. His mouth is dry and his eyelids are sticking together. He somehow makes it to the bathroom just in time, so he doesn´t vomit onto the sheets.   
As a consequence, Dean is woken up by the sound of Cas gagging. That is not quiet the outcome of sharing a bed he had imagined.   
He groans. “Why, Cas? Just heal yourself.”  
Sam is sitting on his bed reading some article and chuckles.   
Between choking and coughing, Cas mutters from the bathroom. “No, I want to know what it is like…” He continues puking.   
Dean shakes his head.   
“I think he wants to experience what Christmas feels like to humans.” Sam says and closes his book.  
“Normal people don´t get blackout drunk in preparation for Christmas, you know that, Cas, don´t you?” Dean shrugs, then he gets up.

They go out for breakfast. Cas doesn´t eat anything, not that he would normally but this time the waiter asking him for his order is enough to turn him pale.   
When he is back behind the counter Dean asks: “So what is the plan?”  
“Well, these two sellers are the only collation we found between both cases so far, so chances are one of them is the link between all vanishing people, so when they switch fairs we´ll have to move with them. “  
Sam opens his laptop and starts typing. Dean checks his phone to find out that he cannot get an internet connection whatsoever while Sam is on his third google search.  
“Alright these Christmas fairs are both in small towns.” He keeps typing.   
Dean could be having fun by talking to Cas about food and watching him turning more and more green, but he doesn´t. Instead he urges him to have a glass of water.  
Dean has almost finished his breakfast when Sam finally looks back up.   
“I found them. “  
Dean looks at him questioningly. Cas keeps looking down, not moving his head too much is working well against his headache so far.  
“Marilyn and Carl, both of them life pretty close to the Christmas fairs the sellers are moving to next. They´re our best bets, both have been to court recently, but neither of them has actually been convicted.” He makes a small pause. “How ´bout you guys take a look at Carl and I´ll take care of Marilyn.”   
Dean turns the laptop around.  
Sam has both mugshots opened. Carl looks like the human incarnation of a paperclip, while Marilyn is a beautiful young woman. Dean lifts an eyebrow.   
“I am just making sure you stay on task.” Sam shrugs.   
“Sure.” Dean rolls his eyes. “Are you feeling any better, Cas?”


	15. 15th of December

Even if there are a few days left until the next advent, they decide that it won´t hurt to start preparing and getting used to the new surroundings. Maybe they could even find out whether or not it really is a ghost or some other creature. The best-case scenario of course being, that they kill that thing before either Marilyn or Carl become aware of the danger that is surrounding one of them.  
Sam looks up a rental car service in the area.   
“Got one. It´s a twenty-minute drive.”  
Dean shakes his head at that.   
“Are you afraid to be put on the naughty list?”  
“Dean, I am not going to steal a car, when I´m gonna be in a town surrounded by people, and you know, the police.” Sam stuffs a shirt into his bag.   
“All right, all right.” Dean shrugs. “When do you wanna leave?”  
“The sooner the better, I think.” Sam shoulders his backpack.  
Dean grabs his jacket and makes sure the keys are inside.   
“Bye, Cas.” Sam says over to where Cas is laying on Dean´s bed, starring at the ceiling.  
He barely lifts his hand to wave him goodbye and smiles weakly.   
“I´m just gonna drop off Sam real quick, okay?”   
Cas nods extremely slowly.  
“And maybe I´ll grab some Ibuprofen on the way back.” Dean adds.  
Sam is already waiting outside and Dean is about to close the door, when Cas speaks. “Dean?” His words echo in the room, unsure if Dean will still be able to hear him, but unwilling to move his head to check.  
Dean halts all of his movements. “Yeah?”  
“Thank you.”  
“Sure thing, buddy.” Dean doesn´t perceive how soft his own gaze becomes in this moment.  
He closes the door and leaves Cas in welcomed silence.  
He probably wouldn´t be able to make it across the snowy highways without getting sick again, and Dean isn´t sure he´d be fit enough to teleport to him later.   
Earlier when they had that discussion Dean said: “Look at him. Do you really think he could concentrate on the case enough to not end up on the north pole to visit Santa?”   
So, they decided that they´d wait till the evening to leave.  
Sam doesn´t even try to argue and Cas stays quiet as well. He isn´t necessarily interested in being left behind and feeling sick all by himself, when he could have Dean taking care of him instead.   
Dean wouldn´t admit it, but he isn´t only forcing Cas to drink tons of tea and water to be able to drive of as soon as possible. Cas doesn´t talk very much while puking and maybe Dean misses his voice.   
So, when Dean returns, they wait. Outside the snow won´t stop falling and none of them feels the need to drive right through that anyway. It may be a wasted day, but they can all use a little bit of rest.   
Dean makes Cas swallow one of the pills he got, then he sits down next to Cas and turns on the TV.   
The news lady is talking about a power blackout, but Dean can´t understand any of it. Because Cas groans as soon as her voice meets his ears. “Could you please turn the volume down a little.”   
Dean nods.   
“A little more.”  
“I didn´t even do anything yet, Cas.”   
From his upside-down point of view Cas can only see the ceiling fan and a little bit of Dean´s face.   
When they found a compromise, Dean helps Cas to sit up.   
“You shouldn´t have laid down again. When you get up in the morning and just keep going it´s easier to get through the day.”  
Cas huffs at that.  
Dean switches to a channel that plays reruns of one of these sitcoms with way too many laugh tracks. But neither of them really minds.  
His mood makes Cas add cynical comments to everything that make them laugh more than any of the actual jokes. At some point Dean moves over a bit towards him until he can feel Cas body heat through his flannel. But he makes sure they are not touching. After they have seen the same detergent ad for the fifth time they decide to leave. Dean stuffs all of their stuff into bags and brings them to the car, while he lets Cas relax for a moment longer. Then they drive further up north.


	16. 16th of December

It is already night time when Sam arrives. The snow wasn´t helping and the wind kept getting stronger. Somewhere around there must have been a power blackout and the failing traffic lights just add to the chaos and jams. Just seeing the town sign is enough for Sam to feel like he made it, so he chooses the first motel he sees even though it is still pretty far from the city center.  
The hotel room has an awful wallpaper. He wonders if it has always been this yellow. When he spots some of the stains, he decides that he would rather not pay too much attention to the walls, or the carpet or the curtains. The furniture would not necessarily have been his choice either but at least it seems clean, mostly. He goes to sleep.   
There is no real reason to get up. Normally he would just go to Marilyn´s house, but he couldn’t find her address anywhere online.   
Instead he knows exactly when and where he needs to be to find her.  
Yesterday while Dean made tea for Cas, went out for gas and then made some more tea, he took a look at Marilyn´s Facebook. She is still quite active on there, and luckily, she entered the group for an event with the title “Disco on ICE”. It starts at 8pm, so Sam has plenty of time left.   
It has been a long time since Sam went Ice-skating. Back when they were children Dean used to take him to frozen lakes sometimes. One time he even showed him how to skate backwards. Sam still has a small scar on his hand from that day.   
The seller from the fair told him she´d take a day off before switching to this fair. She is not going to arrive before tomorrow, so there is really not much left for him to do. He tries to do some more research but last night´s snow storm has wrecked a few masts down the road and damaged the wires he´d need to get an internet connection right now. So, he stays a bit in bed and reads.   
Inside the ice rink it´s dark and cold, not as bad as it is outside, but not necessarily comfortable either. The first thing he sees is purple and nothing but purple until the spotlight moves away from his face and across the room. Pop music is being blasted from all boxes; it is one of these songs that would make Dean immediately switch stations if he heard it on the radio. Sam doesn´t mind it as much. The bass is turned up so high he can feel it in his fingers.   
He needs a moment to orient himself.   
This is definitely not an ideal situation to find a person he has never met before. But following her home from here will probably still be the easiest way to find out where she lives. There is no way to get around a little bit of stalking if he wants to be able to protect her when the third advent comes.   
He sits down onto the stand close to the entrance and acts as if he ties the skates he borrowed. They are just as uncomfortable as he remembered. In actuality, he alternates between staring at the entrance and the icy surface. All the people walking and skating around distract him and the lights moving in circles make him feel dizzy.   
Right in front of him a girl stumbles trying to balance the skates on the floor. She yelps but grabs the board just in time, then she stats giggling.  
When Sam turns back to the entrance his eyes are met by a group of women entering the hall. They have all bundled up, wearing mittens and scarves. One of the is wearing a dark green bobblehead, her face is hidden in the shadows. But he recognizes her by her dark locks and the jacket she is wearing.   
Marilyn says something, Sam can´t understand it, Ariana Grande is blaring to loud for that, but her friends start laughing. They sit down next to him to change into their skates. Sam gets up and walks toward the Ice. He would be easily noticeable if he sat around staring at them the whole night. Plus, why not have a bit of fun while he has the chance. He just has to make sure to keep them in sight.


	17. 17th of December

Time flies by for Dean and Cas. They have to split up a lot. Cas mostly observes Carl and studies his routines. They want to be prepared for the third advent to be able to protect him as well as possible.   
Dean monitors the seller from the Christmas fair; his name turns out to be Jeff. Dean talks to him some more and ends up buying the sleigh. But afterwards he mostly just watches him from the distance. In fear of being recognized he only gets closer a few times. Cas suggests using different hats do disguise himself. But that is too ridiculous even for Dean. They stay in contact over the phone. It´s also an attempt to keep their boredom down.   
Whenever they switch positions Cas makes sure to bring Dean a hot drink or something to eat. The cold is taking a toll on Dean´s body, even though Cas heals him every night the sniffles come back throughout each day.   
Today is the Day. Well, currently it is the night, as it is still in the earliest hours of the day. If the pattern doesn´t change completely someone is going to vanish on the third advent as well. Only if they can´t stop it.   
The phone presses cold against Dean´s ear as he asks: “How are things going?”  
“Fine, I guess. Nothing much is happening.” Dean is glad to hear Sam´s voice.   
But he doesn´t understand how Sam can call finding nothing fine, but he doesn´t ask.   
“What about you guys?”   
“I´m so damn tired, dude.” He shakes his head, even if Sam can´t see it.  
“That´s all?” Sam´s voice sounds less hoarse than his own.  
“That´s all,” He chuckles, then adds: “I´m out, watching Carl. Cas is making sure this Jeff dude isn´t performing any rituals or anything.”  
“How about we maybe check up on each other every hour?” Sam says.   
Dean grins. At any other time, he would probably refuse. They´re independent people and he is pretty confident hunting by himself. But he has no energy left for that. “Wanna make sure I don´t fall asleep?”  
“That, and in case something is going on I could drive over. It would be a bit, but late help is better than none, right?”   
“Sure, let´s do that.”

Cas and Dean are sitting in front of Carl´s window. It has gotten late and it is pitch black outside, except for the neighbor´s Christmas lights. The day has come and gone. Carl went on a walk in the afternoon. But that was it.   
Dean is barely keeping himself awake with coffee.   
Carl is watching “Love actually” with his wife.   
Of course Dean definitely, totally doesn´t know the movie. He would never in ever in a million years and for all the money in the world watch a chick flick like that, why would anyone think that?   
Cas keeps looking through the window, completely in awe. His ears are way better that Dean´s, so he can hear the voices speaking and singing through the glass. A sweet smile lays upon his face.  
When Dean finally turns away from Cas, he takes another sip from his thermos. Then he walks a bit on the spot to get at least a little blood to flow into his toes.   
A few hours later they are still standing outside, but in front of a different window. A while ago Carl and his wife went to bed. They left their curtains open, but the lights are turned off. Not that there would have been much to see.   
Despite the gloves Dean can´t feel his fingers anymore. He shivers.   
“Are you cold?” Cas asks.   
Dean really wants to shoot him a sarcastic response, but he has spent to many hours awake at this point to even think of anything remotely funny.   
He nods. But before Cas can offer to help him, he takes his phone out of his pocket.   
“I´ll call Sam. Nothing is happening around here. Something must have happened to Marilyn.”  
It takes a while for him to dial the right number with his numb fingers.  
Sam doesn´t pick up.   
Dean tries his second phone.  
Nothing.  
When Sam doesn´t pick up for the fourth time Dean says:” Something has happened. Maybe Sam is in a fight or worse. We need to help him.”  
Cas can´t even nod before Dean runs to his car.


	18. 18th of December

Dean and Cas are speeding across the highway and through the snow. The street is barely illuminated and leads them straight into the dark.  
Cas tries to call Sam again and again, but he never answers. They have to resort to tracking his location. 

But what did Sam do in the days leading up to the third advent. He went Ice skating.   
Luckily, he didn´t unlearn it, it was just like riding a bike to him. Just skating backwards is difficult to him again, but he was never really good at that.  
Therefore it isn´t Sam who falls.  
She skates through a crowd and appears in front of him all of the sudden. She tries to avoid him but her skates get caught up in one another. Marilyn slides into his side and falters. The impact pushes them backwards on the ice. Sam grabs her shoulder just before she can lose her balance again and puts her back onto her feet.  
Both of them apologize, maybe even a little too much. Then Marilyn looks down to her skates, she blushes.   
Sam offers to buy her coffee as an apology. He couldn´t care less that he wasn´t even at fault. After all what better way would there be to protect her than to stay close to her.  
When her friends see Sam, they can´t even be mad at her for saying yes. The both of them walk over toward the small booth in the hall.  
Marilyn laughs a lot and tells him about her job as a chef. Sam tells her that he is a dentist. He probably had that idea, because her teeth are just so white and straight. But with the same logic he could have been a hair stylist. (Her hair is not straight and white though; it is just really beautiful).   
Sam spends the next day at the fair with her.   
It is the third advent.  
Sam planed a date with her for today. Of course, just strictly to protect her.   
He watched her the whole day long, but at 7pm he stands in front of her door, punctual as always, to pick her up.  
The restaurant is a small, cozy and Italian. The waiter lights the candle on their table and winks at Sam.  
Somehow Marilyn manages to eat her spaghetti without getting a single drop of sauce onto her white dress. They get so caught up in their conversation that Sam jumps when he can feel his phone start to vibrate. He hasn´t noticed how fast the hour went by. He gets up and answers Dean´s call in the bathroom.   
They finish up their dinner and Sam drops her off at her place. He is already prepared to part the car around the corner and come back on foot to watch her for the rest of the night.  
“Would you like to come inside for a drink?” Marilyn plays with the keys in her hand and smiles at him.   
“I´d love that.”  
Upstairs she takes of her coat and shoes.  
Sam´s eyes cling to her every move.  
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She bites her lip, as if it´s an accident.   
In the next moment her hands are in his hair, he presses her against the wall. His lips are hot against hers. It becomes hard for her to breath, but she wouldn´t have it any other way.   
Her hands move to his back and pull at his shirt. He separates from her for a moment. Fabric falls to the floor.   
Every small twitch of muscle is visible when he picks her up. The bedroom is down the hall.   
She falls onto the bed and has just enough time to pull her dress over her head.   
Then he already has her wrists pushed down. If he would have told her to never move again in this moment, she would have done it.   
Time passes and they get lost in it.   
It is hot, then cold. All that are left with is skin, there is nothing else. Skin, nails and hot breath.  
Suddenly there is a crash. The door flies open, barely holding on to the hinge. Splinters of wood fall onto the floor. Sam is blinded by the light coming in from the hallway. He can only make out a silhouette. But he can´t freeze no matter how much his body tells him to. He grabs the revolver he carried with him all day and put down next to the bed in the heat of the moment. Marilyn starts screaming and pulls the blanket up.   
Sam aims at the door; his finger moves to the trigger.   
“Sam, don´t!”  
Cas pushes Dean to the side, as if a bullet would fly across the room in the next second.   
“Dean? Cas? What the hell?”  
The weapon falls down onto the sheets.   
“Why didn´t you pick up? We thought you…” Dean steps back into the doorway and spots Marilyn next to Sam. “Alright.”  
“Who are you and what are you doing in my apartment?” Marilyn looks at Dean, Cas and then Sam.   
Dean mutters to himself: “But we called more than two hours ago, how did he…?”  
125 miles away Carl´s wife wakes up and finds nothing when she feels the left half of the bed for her husband.


	19. 19th of December

For a moment Sam debates if there would be any way not to tell Marilyn the whole truth. Not to know would be easier and a lot safer for her.  
Maybe he could be Deans lost brother, but that would neither explain the guns nor Dean and Cas breaking into her apartment in the middle of the night.   
He could be a criminal on the run, that would make them police officers, but in that case he would have been arrested by now.   
He looks at Dean, Dean nods.   
“What I am about to say is going to change your view on the world. Do you want me to continue?”  
She thinks about it for a moment. “If you don´t tell me I am going to spend my whole life thinking about it. It can´t be that bad.”  
“It is though.” Dean mutters under his breath. Then he pulls Cas out of the doorframe and closes the door. “We should leave the two of them alone for a moment.”   
They sit of the sofa and wait quietly. Dean looks at Cas who is looking around the room.   
Deans heartrate is slowly going back to normal. As he realizes that Sam is truly okay. The only thing that can be heard are the voices through the bedroom door and the ticking of the clock.   
The dim light coming from the hallway paints shadows onto Castiel´s face. The soft lights somehow emphasize the structure of his face.   
Dean wants to say something, anything to get Cas to turn his face towards him.  
But Cas speaks before he can say anything.  
“Dean, it’s the seventeenth.”  
“And?”  
“It is not the third advent anymore.”  
That is when Dean gets it.   
“Fuck.”  
Marilyn´s voice could still be heard from the bedroom.   
“We must have driven off before twelve. Son of a bitch.” Dean covers his face with his hands and sighs.   
“If we only waited one more damn minute.”  
Cas wants to comfort him. He isn´t sure if he should say that they can´t be sure Carl is missing, even if that is unrealistic, or that something serious could have happened to Sam.   
So he says nothing and caresses Dean´s back silently. Without noticing Dean leans into the touch. Cas fingers draw seemingly random lines onto the fabric. They really are enochian letters but there is no way that Dean could tell.   
After a few minutes Dean says: “But then that Jeff dude must have something to do with it. Where ever he and his booth go somebody goes missing. Weird how nothing came up when you googled him.”  
“I didn´t google him, I thought you did.”  
“No way.” He groans, “God damnit.” He doesn´t sound angry, not at Cas at least.   
He takes Marilyn´s laptop from the coffee table.   
Apart from his homepage a ton of newspaper articles appear. He clicks on the first. The headline alone makes them gasp. Dean´s and Cas´ eyes fly across the screen. 

It all happened 31 years ago.   
It is Christmas eve at the Johnson´s home. It is Christmas eve everywhere else too, but is not relevant right now.   
The little boy on the table is called Mike and is going to turns six in two weeks. The baby is his sister Catherin. His mother is putting the food onto the table. The Candles on the table are lit and the fireplace in the living room down the hall is burning.   
Mike loves his mum´s roast. She only ever makes it on special occasions. But no matter how great the content of the pot is, nothing is going to get Mike more excited that the pudding that is already sitting in the fridge.   
His feet dangle above the ground. His Dad is the first to grab the fork.   
Mike is fidgeting on his chair. He has been exited all day. After all Santa will be visiting them tonight. He vowed to stay awake to listen for the sleigh bells. There is a big ball of excitement stuck in his belly.   
He has got the sniffles, so he chews with his mouth open. His mother corrects him again and again but he doesn´t even quite understand what the problem is. He interrupts his parents and can´t stop changing his sitting position.   
When his mother tells him, he won´t get any pudding before he has finished eating, he starts to get irritated.  
“But why?” Mike whines.  
“Because we want to finish our meal first.” The softness has slowly faded from his dads face over the course of the dinner.  
“But I want it now.” Mike gets up from his seat and crosses his arms.  
His mother shakes her head. “You are going to have to wait. Now sit back down.”  
“I want it now!” He drags out the last word and starts jumping up and down in front of the fridge.  
“Enough, you can continue eating in the basement. Maybe you can have your pudding then.” His father is pointing at the door.   
“NO! I don´t wanna.”  
The baby has started crying too.   
“Mike!”  
His father grabs his wrist and drags him through the hallway and the living room down into the basement. Mike tries to fight, hits his dad´s arms but he is not strong enough.   
Mike sits on the basement floor crying. Now his nose is even more runny. His father is standing in the doorway.  
“You have been a bad boy. Santa can tell. You won´t get any presents this year.” Then he pulls the door shut. Mike can hear him locking the door.   
He hates the basement. Even though is barely more than a cabinet. There is only one lightbulb. The shadows are dark and look like monsters and witches.   
Mike´s father sits back down next to his wife and they keep eating in silence.   
The fireplace is still burning. When Mike was pulled across it the carpet shifts. It is closer to the fire now. And it keeps getting hotter.   
Fume arises before it really lights on fire. Only a little bit at first, melting the fiber, but then the whole floor seems to be on fire. It swallows the sofa, then the curtains and it´s fast.   
They don´t notice how the sound of the fire cracking has gotten louder. They even attribute the sound of the coffee table collapsing to Mike throwing a temper tantrum in the basement. It matches his screams, it doesn´t explain why he seems to be coughing more and more.   
When the thick smoke crawls into the kitchen from underneath the heavy wooden door the room is already on fire.   
Mike´s mother is the first to notice. “Does it smell like…” Then she sees the fume. “Fire! There is a fire. Oh God the room is on fire! Mike!”  
Her husband turns around to the door.   
“Get Catherin out of here and call the fire department, I´ll get him.”  
She runs out of the door with the baby in her arms to the house of the neighbor.   
When he opens the door, a wall of smoke hits him in the face. He tries to cover his nose and mouth with his shirt and runs past the fire toward the basement door.   
The fire starts to fed on the kitchen, the door is on fire and falls out of its frame. There is a loud crack when it hits the floor.   
He reaches the basement. There is a big gap between the basement door and the floor and there are no windows down there. The lock has heated up and he burns his fingers trying to open it. It takes him a moment to see anything through the fume. Mike is laying on the floor unconscious.   
The smoke burns in his father´s eyes, but he carries Mike outside. He lays him down on a bit of grass and starts to cry.   
“Mike, wake up, I am so sorry. Please just…”  
Mike doesn´t wake up, not now and never again.


	20. 20th of December

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very early upload today, but since I won´t be back until the middle of the night I had to choose between this or skipping a day and I didn´t want to do that. Any way I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and power through the last few days until it´s finally Christmas.

Dean´s eyes move away from the screen; he looks at Cas. Cas eyes him right back. He doesn´t have to say anything for Cas to know what he thinks. He wouldn´t know what to say or how to express himself either. So they stay silent, even though they have been through most of the night. Dean wants to feels Cas hands caressing his back again, but he doesn´t dare to ask.  
At some point Sam and Marilyn leave the bedroom. She looks composed, at least when taking into consideration what she just heard.  
“So…” She isn´t sure what to say in a situation like this. None of them is.   
“Do any of you want a coffee or something like that?”  
Dean shakes his head. “We got to leave, there is still a lot to be taken care of.” That and after today or rather yesterday he won´t be able to even stand the smell of coffee for at least a week.   
“Did you find out anything?” Sam asks.  
Dean turns the laptop around. The headline is big enough to be read from far away.   
Marilyn´s breath gets stuck in her throat.   
Sam furrows his brows. “The seller´s son?”   
Dean nods.   
Silence spreads between them, until Marilyn asks: “So let me get that right. You think that he turned into a ghost to punish people? But he is just a little boy, or I mean was a little boy.”   
Cas turns to Sam:” We already found out where he is buried.”  
Dean and Cas go back to the car. Sam lingers around just a little longer.  
“This evening turned out to be different than I expected.” She gives him a tired smile.   
Sam just nods.  
She shrugs: “Well, in case you´re ever back in the area you have my number.”  
Two hours later they are standing in between tombstones. Cas drove them to the graveyard after being awake for more than 24 for hours both Sam and Dean really need every bit of sleep they can get.   
It is also Cas who is the first to spot Mike´s gravestone, it is a little smaller than the rest. He whisper-shouts them over.  
“Alright,” Sam says and starts digging.  
First they have to free the ground of snow. The dirt underneath is frozen. They take turns digging, one of them has to hold the flashlight. At least the constant moving keeps them warm.  
It takes a while for Dean´s shovel to his something hard other than frozen soil.   
“I got it.”   
Knowing they´re close motivates them, the last bits vanish faster.   
The casket is terribly small.  
Sam takes a deep breath and lunges to break the lid, when suddenly a strange voice says: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”  
It has definitely been said to often for one night.   
A flashlight is shining right into their faces.   
“FBI.” Dean says completely dumbfounded.   
“And since when does the FBI have to dig for corpses in the middle of night. Are you organ sellers or sick perverts who are into dead people? I am calling the police.”  
For a moment nothing happens, the stranger just stares at them, even though his phone is already in his hand.   
Cas lifts his hands and says calmly: “We are the police. I am going to slowly walk over to you and show you my batch. Okay?”  
The man nods. “But don´t dare to try something, I can call the police immediately.” His hand is still cramping around his phone.   
Dean looks at Sam, a question is laying heavy on his tongue: “Does Cas know the batches are laying in the car?” But he doesn´t say anything.  
When Cas stands in front of the man, he slips his hand into the inner pocket of his trench coat. With one fluid motion he pulls it back out, empty of course, and lays his thumb onto the men´s forehead.   
He all his muscles relax immediately. Cas carefully lays him onto the ground.   
“Hurry. He is going to wake up in a few minutes. I don´t want him to freeze.   
The last few moves are fast and coordinated.   
Sam breaks the casket´s lid, Dean spreads salt over the body, while Sam is already lighting a match.   
They are sitting in the impala comfortably when the stranger wakes up again.


	21. 21st of December

It takes a few days for them to find a new case. When they finally do everything is pointing to one, if not multiple djinns.  
Cas is disappointed when he finds out they are driving south. He knows what that means. Ever since he listened to “I´m dreaming of white Christmas”, almost three weeks ago, he did exactly that. He doesn´t want to ask Sam and Dean to just stay a little while longer for the snow. So, he spends the night before they plan to drive off reading through countless articles and watching every local news program he can find. But not even the slightest trace of a case comes up. It really seems like it will be a calm and quiet Christmas.   
If Dean would have known of Cas affords, he probably would have responded something like: “You think the monsters want to freeze their asses of?” But Dean doesn´t notice any of it, he is asleep after all.   
They drive back to Kansas. It is too warm around there for snow to last longer than a few seconds there. In protest at the unbearable heat, as Cas calls it, he wears a scarf. He didn´t even do that in Minnesota, but he hasn´t got the ability to get cold either.   
When Sam asks him where he got it from so suddenly, he responds: “It is self-made.”  
Sam comments only with a raised eyebrow. Dean shrugs, for all they know Cas could spend all night surrounded by yarn.  
Cas didn´t lie. After all the grandma on the fair he got it from knitted it herself. The scarf is soft and matches the blue of his tie, that is all Cas wants and expects from a scarf.   
The case is pretty clear. After a few days the missing people show up again, dead and completely drained of blood. The frequency of victims suggests at least three djinns.   
They manage to catch one of them red handed. But even after two days of taking turns torturing him, he doesn´t communicate with them in any way other than screaming, but the only thing that tells them that their methods are effective, but not effective enough. Cas leaves most of torture to Sam and Dean, it doesn´t really correspond to his ethics, especially around Christmas time.   
Dean finally kills the djinn on an accident.   
Sam just walked into the room to replace him. But Cas isn´t there to heal him. Before Dean can think of calling him over, he is just in the other room listening to Christmas songs after all, all life leaves the creature.   
“Can´t you be more careful, Dean? Now we can start all over again.” Sam groans.  
“Do you think I did that on purpose? I am on three hours of sleep right now. I just slipped.”   
In that moment Sam´s phone starts to ring. He wants to mute it; this conversation is important. But then he sees who the caller is; Marilyn. He picks up.  
Before he can make a sound, she says: “Sam? Something is happening. The light is flickering and my TV… I don´t know what to do. Maybe I am imagining things but…”   
Sam feels like something twisted all of his organs.  
Dean doesn´t understand what she said, but watching Sam´s reaction is enough for his expression to change from angry to worried.   
Sam asks: “Do have any salt at home?”   
“Yes, in the kitchen, do you think that…? I mean…”  
He interrupts her: “Marilyn. I need you to listen to me closely. I want you to form a circle of salt on your floor. Stand inside and don´t leave it. We are on our way. Okay?”  
It is silent for a moment.  
“Marilyn?”  
“He is here, Sam. I…”  
“Do have the salt? Or iron? Anything made of iron.”  
There is a snap. The phone fell to the ground.  
“Marilyn. Marilyn? Dean get the Impala! We got to go!”


	22. 22nd of December

They storm towards the door.   
“Cas! Come on, we are leaving.”   
Cas sticks his head around the corner with a confused look on his face. When he sees their expressions, he doesn´t dare to ask any questions. He just grabs one of their bags and follows Dean outside.  
The streets are empty and it is already dark outside.   
Dean takes advantage of both conditions to the fullest extent. If he can´t see any headlights glowing, there won´t be any cars, so he runs every red light. They break all speed limits and whenever they drive across a bump in the road the whole car shakes. The hum of the engine is the only sound around them. Even if they are going to drive for a few hours none of them wants to put on any music.   
After a few minutes Cas asks why they are driving so fast. He doesn´t add that he is afraid they might have an accident.   
Cas can simply heal himself, Dean cannot. Of course, Sam can´t either, but to be honest that isn´t really the first thought he has when the road bends sharply and they almost skid.   
“He has Marilyn.”  
Sam doesn´t have to explain anything else. Cas knows what he is talking about and even if he didn´t Sam´s body language would be enough to answer all questions.  
He sits to straight and his chest barely rises when he breathes.  
Mike must be bound to some object. Something his father is caring around and taking with him to every fair he visits and sells at. He must have spent the last weekend of this year´s Christmas season at Marilyn´s town.   
None of them had even noticed the date up to this point. The last few days blended together in their memory and they didn´t feel the time passing. But now the fourth advent had come.  
When Cas sees Sam´s expression, he understands why he is urging Dean to speed as much. Sam didn´t know Marilyn for very long but he really must have liked her.   
Cas´ eyes meet Deans in the rearview-mirror. He wants Dean to look at the street, they are driving very fast after all. But he just can´t bring himself to turn away. The stern look on Dean´s face reflects his concern and compassion for his brother clearly. The love he feels for Sam colors his soul. When Dean finally breaks their eye contact and looks back outside Cas understands Sam even better.  
“Sam, I don´t think we should drive to Marilyn´s place,” Dean says about an hour later.   
“What is that supposed to mean? She needs our help, Dean.” Sam stares at him.   
“Hear me out. I don´t think she is going to be there anymore.”   
An `If she is still alive ´ is floating through the air. “None of the other victims was still in the town they vanished from.”  
“But what else are we supposed to do then? We have to start somewhere.”  
Cas raises an eyebrow when he is hit by an idea, probably the same Dean had a few minutes ago.  
He says: “He punishes naughty people. He was naughty himself. What if he punished them the same way he thinks he was?”  
Sam turns around to him; his eyes wide open: “You think he wants to burn them.” That is not a question.  
Dean says: “I think so too. There have been no corpses found. They might all be still alive.”  
“If he really repeats what happened to himself, he is going to suffocate them on the 24th,” Cas speculates further.   
Sam can´t think straight: “But how does that help us. We don´t know where he keeps them.”  
“At home, Sam. So, they feel what he felt,” Deans eyes are focused on the road.   
Sam looks at his watch. It won´t be long until the morning of the 24th. Dean steps on the gas.


	23. 23rd of December

There are 533 miles and seven hours between them and the place where they suppose all victims are held captive, the house that caught fire almost exactly 31 years ago. They make it in five and a half.   
If they would have driven any faster, the tires wouldn´t have been able to grip the frozen streets anymore and they would have slid straight off, and that would have helped neither Marilyn nor the others.   
They spend the drive speculating on how he is even strong enough to abduct people and how he can gather them all in one place. Dean has the theory that he doesn´t even know that he died. Sam thinks that he plainly has been a ghost for long enough to learn all sorts of different tricks. Cas suggests that like the bumblebee that flies regardless of its wings being too small, he doesn´t know the rules of being a ghost and just breaks them without knowing. It is probably a mixture of all of the above.  
The sun is already rising when they arrive. It´s hidden by a thick blanket of clouds and colors the sky white. They can´t be sure that Mike will wait for the evening. People vanished at different times over the course of the day, but always on the Sundays leading up to Christmas. The date seems to be more important to him than the actual time.  
The house is outside of town. There is a crooked “for sale” sign in the front lawn of the closest neighbor. There is nobody to here to hear screams.   
Mike´s family left the house and moved away shortly after the fire. Only a few of the damages have been repaired.   
Dean can imagine what it must have looked like in the night of the fire. The traces are still very visible. He can spot the exact place where it had been stopped just before it could climb up to the roof. But Dean has no time to get lost in his thoughts about what happened here, there are more important things to do.   
The Impala hasn´t stopped entirely, when Sam is already opening the door and jumping outside. He runs to the trunk and grabs salt and a few weapons with rock salt bullets. He chucks one to Dean and one to Cas. Then he runs to the front door.   
It would have been smarter to get an overview of the location first and to plan how they were going to go about this.   
But Sam is already gone before Dean can say anything about that.   
There is smoke coming from the chimney. Mike has already started.   
Sam kicks open the door, it wasn´t even locked but he didn´t check that beforehand. Dean and Cas follow him.   
If they would have walked around the house, they would have found the backdoor to the basement. It has been locked for years, but they would have found a way to open it.   
Sam rushes through the hallway. The walls are covered in soot.   
Dean walks behind him and holds the gun in his hand firmly. He peeks into the kitchen. Or rather what once was the kitchen. It is empty. Cas follows him closely. Dean can already smell the smoke.   
There is a bang and a yelp.   
“Sam!”   
Dean races out of the kitchen through the hallway and into the living room.   
“Dean, don´t! He is…”  
Sam is being pressed against the wall by an invisible hand. His gun lays on the floor a few feet away from him. While he speaks his throat is being squeezed even tighter.   
A little boy is standing in front of the chimney and stuffs something into the smokestack. There is already a small fire is burning at his feet, but the heat doesn´t seem to bother him.   
When Sam starts yelling, Mike looks up, sees Dean and Cas standing by the door and makes a small hand movement. The door slams shut.   
There is something that feels like a blow to Deans wrist, the gun flies from his hand. In the next moment his back slams against the wall. He can´t move.   
“Why is he so strong?” Cas asks with a heavy breath.   
“I don´t know.”   
They are stuck to the wall.   
Mike turns back around to the chimney and throws fresh fir-branches into the fire.   
Smoke starts arising, a lot of smoke, but it smells like Christmas.


	24. 24th of December

Dean curses himself for not tying his gun to his hand. Now it is lying on the floor in front of him. Out of reach even if he were able to move his limbs. The more he tries to separate his hand from the wall the stronger the pressure holding it in place becomes.  
The smoke coming of the chimney starts to thicken.   
They can hear voices from behind the basement door.   
“Hello? Is anyone there? Help!” They know this voice, it is Marilyn´s.   
Dean can see how Sam tries to push himself away from the wall desperately, but fails.  
Then he calls back. “Marilyn!”  
There is no sign of exertion on Mike´s face or in his body language. The little boy is giving them no attention at all. He is still just stuffing twigs into the fire.   
The branches fume more than normal firewood would. Not because of Mike´s influence but because there is still a lot of water within them. The smoke isn´t withdrawing through the chimney because it is stuffed, but instead spreading in the room and crawling underneath the door into the basement.   
Dean coughs, the smoke is burning in his eyes. He tries hard to blink the tears away, to keep his vision clear.   
They don´t have much time left.   
Sam tries to breathe as little as possible, he knows that every breath he takes is slowly suffocating him.   
Dean looks over to him and realizes that somehow Sam has managed change the position of his hand. He moved his hand towards his pocket so slowly that Mike didn´t notice it. He can already feel the box of salt underneath his fingertips. His eyebrows are contacted in concentration as he grabs the box and pulls it out of his jacket. His hand is shaking from exhaustion.   
But right now, Mike isn´t paying any attention to them. This is his chance.  
Every inch costs Sam so much energy that he is completely out of breath. He concentrates all of his force and snaps his wrist upwards. The salt flies through the room towards Mike, but he just nods his head to the side and the grains fall to the ground as if they hit an invisible wall.  
Dean swears but as he is opening his mouth the fume burns his throat. It is hot. Pearls of sweat run down his forehead. It becomes harder to see Sam as billows of smoke fill the space between them.  
Screams and coughs come from the basement.   
Dean looks at Cas. Their eyes meet. Dean´s look is a goodbye. Cas shakes his head. This is not the end, it just can´t be, not on a simple chase like this, not on Christmas eve, not without…   
The smoke can´t hurt Cas, he won´t suffocate. Mike puts another twig down.   
Dean can´t talk anymore, he is only coughing.  
“Mike!” Cas says.   
The little boy isn´t looking up.   
“Mike! Do you think this is what Santa wanted?”   
Mike turns around and looks at him questioningly, then he responds: “Santa knows who the naughty kids are. You need to be punished, all of you. I know what you did. You are very naughty.”  
“Is that the truth? If I remember correctly only Santa knows that, isn´t that true?”  
Dean is getting dizzy, every breath is hurting more and more. His eyes don´t leave Cas, no matter how painful keeping them open is. If he really has to die, he is at least going to choose what the last thing he is going to see is.   
“You have to be punished.” Mike points at Cas. “You did bad stuff, a lot of it. I know it.” Then he moves his hand toward the chimney. Cas is sliding closer to the fire. “Cas!” Dean yells and before he is caught in another cough attack. Cas tries to stay calm; he is no actual danger. But if his vessel is on fire, there is no way for him to help Sam and Dean.   
“But Mike, Santa can see all the good one does too. He makes a list. Only he can weigh one’s actions, only he can decide who is naughty and who is nice.”  
“But I saw… But I was nice all year long. I only…” Mike starts to cry. “But I…”  
“That wasn´t Santa, Mike. Santa loves all children; he only wants to help them become good and nice adults. He is not mad at you. But you can´t assume his role. The people in the basement are not bad and if they were Santa would take care of that.”  
Mike falls to the ground, tears are streaming down his face. In the same moment the force pressing them to the wall weakens and then stops.   
Sam breaks the window with his elbow. Air flows into the room.   
Cas throws his trench coat at the fire and suffocates the flames.   
He freezes when he feels something at his hip. Mike hugs him.   
“You are sure I am not a naughty boy?”  
“Completely sure, Santa loves you:”  
Mike smiles then he becomes more and more see through until he seems to blend in with the smoke.  
Dean tries to push open the basement door, but is shaken and hindered my his coughs. Cas walks over to him.   
“You have to go to the window immediately. I will take care of this. You need to breath, now.”  
Dean obeys and Cas opens the door.   
The basement is filled with smoke. The missing people are sitting on the floor cramped together. Cas makes his way over to the back door. It has not been opened in years; Cas uses his grace to free the way.   
The air outside is clear and cold.   
Most of them leave the basement on their knees. Cas only has to one outside. He doesn´t pay attention to who it is. Some of them laugh others cry when the sun hits their skin after days or weeks in the darkness of the basement.   
Sam walks out of the house, but starts running when he sees Marilyn sitting in the snow. Cas goes to search for Dean and finds him just outside the front door, breathing heavily and letting the sun shine onto his face, his eyes are closed. He only realizes Cas when he is already standing right in front of him.   
“Cas, you could have…” Another coughing fit stops him from talking.   
Cas lays his thumb onto his forehead. Dean can feel his lungs calming down and his head clearing up.  
“Cas, you shouldn´t have done that. He could have burnt you, he could have…” All criticism vanishes when Cas pulls him into a hug and whispers against Dean´s shoulder:” “I was so scared. I thought you would suffocate. I thought I lost you. I thought…” It´s barely loud enough for Dean to understand. Dean puts his arms around him and holds him tenderly. Cas lifts his head and says: “My vessel is not important to me. Especially not when I can save you … the both of you with it.” Then he lays his head back onto Dean´s shoulder. He smells like smoke so does Cas but neither of them cares.  
Cas says: “I thought you might die before I could…” He stops midsentence.  
Dean pushes him away, just as much as he needs to look into his eyes.   
“You could what?”  
“Doesn´t matter.” Then he shakes his head and disagrees with himself: “No actually it does matter. I never understood it when humans use this communication tactic. Why would I stop myself when I have wanted to confess to you for months, just to leave both you and me unsatisfied with the outcome of the conversation. It disregards logic in every degree and…”  
Dean interrupts him: “Confess what?” He is holding his breath even if he is almost sure of Cas´ answer.   
“My feelings.”  
“Cas, do you know what you´re saying?”  
Cas nods, realizing what he just did.  
Dean breaths out. “Oh, thank God.” He lays his hand into Cas neck and pulls him closer. “I wouldn´t have wanted to die without that either.” He put his lips on Cas´. They taste like fire, but nothing has ever mattered less.   
It has gotten late. Sam and Dean have spent the whole day sleeping after Cas healed them of their fume poisoning. The missing people are in the hospital, regenerating them would have been to suspicious, even if they erased Mike from their memories.   
Dean is woken up by the smell of turkey. They haven´t eaten since the last evening.   
When he opens his eyes, he can´t recognize the hotel room.   
Cas lit fairy lights everywhere. In the middle of the room there is a big Christmas three, with ornaments in every Christmas color. He did have a lot of time over the course of the day.   
Slowly Sam wakes up as well. They eat turkey.   
Cas gifts Sam some noise canceling headphones. Dean gets the limited-edition doctor sexy season 3 DVD with all deleted scenes and bloopers.   
Sam looks at Dean with panic in his eyes; They didn´t buy anything for Cas.   
But Dean says calmly: “I´ll get our present for you from the car real quick.”   
When he gets back, he carries the sleigh from the fair under his arm.   
Cas doesn´t realize how improvised the present is. He is in awe and already planning where they could go to ride it first.   
Dean never thought he could ever get used to Cas being this Christmas obsessed, now it has saved his life. He looks at him and smiles.   
Sam nods knowingly.   
The Christmas tree glows, the candles are lit, outside the snow is falling and “Last Christmas” is quietly playing on the radio.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone!   
> That´s it.   
> Thank you for reading this fic all the way to the end.  
> I hope that I could bring a little Christmas (and supernatural) joy to your December.  
> Have a great day!


End file.
